A New York-based blues-rock quartet formed in 1988 by
singer/harmonica player John Popper, guitarist Chan
Kinchla, bassist Bobby Sheehan, and drummer Brendan
Hill, Blues Traveler was part of a revival of the extended
jamming style of '60s and '70s groups like the Grateful
Dead and Led Zeppelin. Signed to A&M, they released
their first album, Blues Traveler, in May 1990 and followed
it with Travelers & Thieves in September 1991. Popper
was in a serious car accident in 1992, leaving him unable
to perform for a number of months. Fortunately, he recovered,
yet he still had to perform in a wheelchair for a period
of time. In April 1993, Blues Traveler released its
third album, Save His Soul, which became its first to
make the Top 100. Blues Traveler's aptly named fourth
album, Four, released in September 1994, at first looked
like a sales disappointment, but it rebounded in 1995
when "Run-Around," a single taken from it,
became the group's first chart hit. "Run-Around"
became one of the biggest singles of 1995, spending
nearly a full year on the charts and sending Four into
quintuple platinum status.
As the group prepared the follow-up to Four, Blues Traveler
released the live double-album Live From the Fall in
the summer of 1996. The group returned in the summer
of 1997 with its fifth studio album, Straight on Till
Morning. After completing his 1999 debut solo effort
Zygote, Popper -- who'd been experiencing chest pains
for months -- was forced to undergo an angioplasty;
weeks later, tragedy struck on August 20, 1999, when
Sheehan was found dead in his New Orleans home. He was
just 31 years old. The new millennium saw a newly charged
Blues Traveler, and their sixth record, Bridge, appeared
in May 2001. The next winter, Blues Traveler released
the reflective What You and I Have Been Through. |
